Holding Down the Fort
by Bebedora
Summary: Sometimes everyone needs to play in a fort. Bones and his young daughter spend some quality time together, along with her new friend, Jim Kirk. Can be seen as a super-early prequel to "Daddy's Little Girl." Fluffy oneshot.


Holding Down the Fort

"Shhhh, he'll hear us!"

Joanna McCoy, just past her sixth birthday, giggled in delight at the mischief she and her new friend were creating. She held her hands over her mouth to stifle the noise, her pigtails bobbing along with her shaking head.

"C'mon, Jo. You have to be quiet; otherwise the 'Big Giant Monster' will come lookin' for us!" The young man whispered into a cupped hand. "An' we don't want to make him mad…he's grumpy!"

A voice echoed from somewhere outside their enclosure. "_I can hear everything you're saying, you know._"

Jim Kirk feigned horror. He pulled Joanna close and wrapped his arms around her. "Oh no! I knew this day would come! He's going to get us and feast on your toes!"

Joanna screeched in horror as Jim grabbed one of her toes, dotted with pink nail polish. She jumped as he did, bumping one of the couch cushions that made up their blanket fort. The wall began to sway and within seconds, the duo was scrambling to get out of their crumbling fortress.

"I told you that thing wasn't structurally sound."

Jim scowled at Leonard McCoy as he crawled out from underneath the pile of linens and pillows. Joanna scooted out next to him, her face red from laughter. "Uncle Jim makes good forts, Daddy!"

"Yeah, I make good forts, _Daddy."_ Jim smirked.

McCoy scooped Joanna up into his arms, narrowing his eyes at Kirk. "Time to get in the tub, darlin'. You've been in the pool." He kissed her cheek.

"But Daddy! I want to keep playing fort with Uncle Jim!"

Kirk smiled as he stood. "Tell you what, Jo. You go take bath and I'll build us an even better fort. One we can sleep in!"

The little girl shrieked and clapped her hands. "You hear that, Daddy? We're gonna sleep in the fort!" McCoy just shook his head as he carried his precious cargo towards the hotel bathroom.

Leonard's ex-wife, Jocelyn, had agreed to let Joanna spend a long weekend visiting her father at Starfleet Academy. He had been in San Francisco for months, and they could both tell that Joanna missed him dearly. Since it wasn't appropriate to allow a six-year-old to spend her nights in a college dormitory, McCoy had sprung for two nights in a hotel, complete with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was supposed to be just Leonard and his daughter. But within minutes of meeting Jim, Joanna had become attached and had begged her father to let her new best friend tag along.

He couldn't be sure, but he was pretty certain that Jim was even more excited than Jo.

Hearing Joanna splashing away in the tub, chattering on and on about the fort, Jim smiled warmly he collected the remnants of the destroyed stronghold and went on a quest for more building materials. He quickly stripped the couch from the bedroom of the hotel suite and added the cushions to the pile already removed from the sofa and loveseat from the small sitting area. He wandered down the small hallway and opened the linen closet, looking for more pillows and extra blankets. The cabinet was adjacent to the bathroom, and he couldn't help but overhear the conversation coming from behind the cracked door.

"_Sit still, JoJo Bean, or you'll get shampoo in your eyes."_

"_Okay, Daddy."_

The splashing continued, Joanna humming a sweet little song as her father washed the chlorine out of her long hair.

"_All done, Jo. You want to play for a bit?"_

"_Can Uncle Jim come play with me?"_

McCoy sighed. _"You can play with him when you're all done, alright?"_

"_In the fort?"_

"_You really like Jim, don't you, Jo?"_

The little girl giggled. _"Oh, yes, Daddy! He's like Prince Charming!"_

Jim snorted and slapped his hand over his mouth, feverishly trying not to laugh. He could just see his friend rolling his eyes.

"_Prince Charming, huh?"_

Joanna giggled. _"Yes, he's Prince Charming and I'm Cinderella. I'm going to marry Uncle Jim!" _

Jim heard his friend groan. _"Well, I don't know about that, kiddo, but he is pretty neat. Did you know that he can speak six languages besides Standard?"_

"_Even Andorian?"_

"_Yup."_

"_Is he a doctor like you Daddy?"_

Kirk heard McCoy release the catch on the drain, and the tub began to empty. _"Nope. He wants to be a starship Captain someday."_

"_I want to be a Captain too!"_

McCoy chuckled. _"I thought you wanted to be a doctor, just like me."_

"_Can't I do both?"_

"_You can do whatever you want, JoJo. As long as you go to college."_

The little girl splashed, and must have sprayed water on her father, because he shrieked dramatically. _"Ya got me! I'm melting!" _Joanna screeched with jubilation and laughed hysterically.

It warmed Jim's heart listening to his friend play with his daughter. Too often than not, McCoy was hard-assed and stubborn, not showing any sort of lovey, soft side. Kirk knew it was there, because once and a while, usually while drunk, Leonard would let his sweetness slip out—and it was almost always when Joanna was brought up. Jim felt so honored that his friend would invite him to share this weekend with them, because he knew just how precious McCoy's limited time with Jo was. The doctor's voice snapped him back from his thoughts.

"_How would you feel if Jim came to visit Georgia some time with me? He's never been there."_

The child clapped her hands. _"Do you think he'd climb Granny's tree with me?"_

"_I'm sure of it. Probably fall and break his ass, though."_

"_You said a swear, Daddy!" _The little girl laughed.

"_Sorry, JoJo. Don't tell on me, alright?"_

"_Okay, Daddy. Where's he from if he's never been to Georgia?" _

"_Iowa. But he was born on a shuttlecraft in space."_

"_In space? For real, Daddy? That's so cool!"_

"_That's why his eyes are so blue. Radiation exposure when he was a brand new baby. Space is cool, but we always have to remember to be careful there, right?"_

Joanna splashed in the water, replying nonchalantly. _"I know, Daddy. Space is filled with diseases."_

McCoy laughed. _"You got it, kiddo. Just don't repeat that around your Mom, okay? She'll have my head."_

The two were quiet for a long moment, the only sound being the water swirling down the drain. Joanna hummed the same little tune she had earlier. She abruptly stopped mid-melody.

"_Is Uncle Jim your best friend?"_

Jim listened intently as McCoy hesitated before answering.

"_I'd like to think so, sweetie. He keeps me company and makes sure I do all my homework."_

"_I don't have any homework in kindergarten. Angie's brother is in third grade and he has to sit every night at the kitchen table until he finishes. One night he was even crying! Does your homework make you cry, Daddy?"_

McCoy chuckled. _"No, but sometimes I have to stay up all night to finish it. And Jim snores, so it makes it extra hard to work. C'mon now, the water's gone. Let's get you out."_

Jim quietly liberated the rest of the blankets and quilts from the closet and tiptoed back into the living room, a huge grin crossing his face.

Minutes later, Leonard and Joanna appeared from the hallway, the little girl bounding towards Jim. Hair still wet and cuddled in her little purple butterfly-print pajamas, she began to run full-tilt at him. Kirk held up a hand, thwarting her impending boisterous arrival. "Careful, Jo! It's not entirely stable yet!" He scooped the child into his arms and swung her wildly, plopping her onto a plush chair. "Sit there for just a minute and let me finish, okay?"

She hugged her teddy bear tight and watched with sparkling eyes as Jim finished his creation. It was truly a sight to behold. The new and improved fortress had not one, but two rooms, joined together by a tunnel of couch cushions. Kirk had dragged the four kitchen chairs from the dinette into the sitting area and arranged them at the four corners of a square, draping a heavy quilt over the tops. He had reinforced the walls with the remaining cushions and had even fashioned a door from a bath towel kept fastened by safety pins.

He crouched down and got on his hands and knees, crawling into the fort. When he was situated inside, he poked his head out of the makeshift door and beckoned to Joanna with a warm smile. "Well, are you comin' or not? There's plenty of room and…" He disappeared for a second inside and with a click; soft light began to stream out through the seams of the blanket walls. "…there's even light! And possibly candy." He had a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Candy? I love candy!" Joanna leapt off the chair and scrambled into the fort. "Daddy! Uncle Jim brought his PADD in here and there's cartoons on it!"

McCoy couldn't help but smile. Joanna had known Jim for less than twelve hours and here she was practically attached to him. He was so happy that the young girl had taken to his friend so easily, and he could see the pure joy on Jim's face whenever Joanna was in the room.

In the past year that he had known Jim, he had been moderately successful in getting his friend to open up about parts of his childhood, usually with the help of some "liquid persuasion." What McCoy had heard made his heart sink. Dead father. Emotionally non-existent mother. Abusive stepfather. A childhood filled with heartbreak and neglect. And Leonard couldn't be one-hundred-percent sure, but he swore one night Jim had even mentioned something about Tarsus IV in a drunken stupor.

So to see his friend so happy, playing with his daughter in a couch cushion fort, engaging in play that he was fairly certain Jim never got to experience as a child—well, he could let the candy after seven o'clock slide.

Joanna's tiny voice wafted out from behind the fabric. "Daddy! Come inside! There's room for all of us!"

Jim's voice followed. "Yeah, Bones! We can all sleep in here tonight!"

McCoy got down on his hands and knees and pulled back the towel door. "What makes you think I want to sleep on the floor with you yahoos in a fort that's liable to come crashin' down at any minute?"

Jim's eyes sparkled. "'Cause it's fun. C'mon, don't be a party pooper."

"Yeah, Daddy! Don't poop!"

Jim and McCoy both laughed. "I don't intend to, JoJo Bean. Alright, fine. Make room."

Leonard crawled into the fort, securing the door behind him with the pin Jim had attached.

The trio sat up eating chocolate and popcorn until way past Joanna's bedtime watching cartoons and princess holovids. Sometime after midnight, when Joanna had finally succumbed to exhaustion, the two men settled down into the nest of blankets Jim had dragged into the fort. As his eyes began to close, Leonard's tiny daughter snuggled safely into his chest, he smiled.

"Thanks, Jim. This really made Jo's night."

Kirk's voice, coming from the other "room" in the fort, was heavy with sleep. "Don't mention it, Bones. It was fun to be a kid again. Even if it was only for a night."

McCoy closed his eyes and pulled Joanna close to him tightly. He felt bad for Jim, growing up without the opportunities to play like this, fearing his step father would act violently for no reason. So, even if it were only for one night, he was glad that little Joanna could bring joy to Kirk's life.

He vowed to make it a regular occurrence.


End file.
